Soaring Cocaine Use In England Driven Largely By Women
According to a nationwide research study released on Wednesday, cocaine abuse in England rose significantly in the five years between 2003 and 2008.Â
Experts say the increase can be attributed to the substance’s cheapness, availability and increased social acceptance.
The study pointed to London, with an estimated 47,000 users, as the vital center of cocaine use in the UK. Surrounding regions, however, are beginning to catch up to the trend-setting capitol and the wave of use is quickly spreading throughout all social classes.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the report also found that cocaine use amongst British women had increased dramatically and is now almost on par with male consumption rates.
"We’re very much in an age of chemical enhancement and a pill for every ill," said Jim McVeigh, of the Center for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University.
"We’re seeing it both within the most deprived areas [...][and] in the affluent ones which have traditionally been associated with cocaine being a champagne type drug," he said.
The UK’s rate of individuals between the ages 16 and 59 who admitted to using cocaine at least once in their lifetime rose from 55.7 per thousand people to 72.5 per thousand between 2003 and 2008.
A prime cause for the increased rate is the falling price of cocaine, which dropped to between 40-60 pounds ($65.56) per gram from around 100 pounds ($164) in the 1980s. According to McVeigh, the new prices make the drug cheaper than drinking alcohol in a pub for a group of friends who decide to share one gram.
McVeigh also blames what he calls England’s increasingly "medicalized society" in which every variety of pharmaceutical products can be bought online to help with everything from sexual performance to weight-loss.
In this sort of cultural environment, another chemical substance such as cocaine no longer seems so taboo, he said.
"I think people at one time saw drugs as a homogenous group of substances which they either engaged in or they didn’t [...] Now there’s a lot more merging [of habits]," he explained.
Researchers identified the sky-rocketing consumption of cocaine by women as one of the clearest trends provided by their data.
In 2003, 8.2 percent of men between the ages of 10 and 25 admitted to having used cocaine in their lifetime compared with only 4.8 percent of women. By 2006, however, the disparity had narrowed significantly to 7.2 percent for men and roughly 6.7 percent for women.
The report pooled data from household surveys, hospital records and drug treatment statistics available from 2002/3 to 2007/8. The full version of the report can be found at www.cph.org.uk/ndtms
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